Battlestar Galactica

"Exodus, Part 2"

Air date: 10/20/2006
Written by Bradley Thompson & David Weddle
Directed by Felix Alcala

Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan

I called "Exodus, Part 1" the setup, and now I can call "Exodus, Part 2" the payoff. It's a worthy one —good but not flawless — elevated into the realm of the standouts by virtue of two potent character arcs fully realized by the end.

The rest of the time it plays like a highly entertaining — albeit highly telegraphed — action/adventure, in which all avenues must absolutely and unequivocally arrive at the predetermined solution because the previous episode made so very much of promising that solution's delivery. When "Occupation/Precipice" aired, I figured you could easily get ten episodes out of the New Caprica arc. But after last week's "Exodus, Part 1," it became very clear that New Caprica was quickly going to be left in the rear-view mirror. It's Galactica to the rescue or bust.

I'm not sure if that decision was a good thing, a bad thing, or a neutral thing. Clearly, an occupation is a storyline that could've sustained more than four episodes, especially when the series went so far as to jump forward in time and reinvent itself. At the same time, with all that had been accomplished in "Occupation/Precipice," the show probably needed to move along to keep momentum from flagging — which, by the way, I would argue is somewhat what happened in "Exodus, Part 1." And since so much already happened off-screen — both with the one-year leap as well as the four months of unseen occupation — the story's structure naturally had to be geared toward the escape. I just wonder if it could have been and done more.

Not that we didn't have enough. "Occupation/Precipice" had so many storylines and characters that I'm still in awe of it, and in terms of pure action, "Exodus, Part 2" pulls out all the stops.

Before the action, however, the story first deals with one of those many storylines/characters: Ellen Tigh. Anders tells Tigh that he'd better "take care of" Ellen for her betrayal — because if Tigh doesn't, someone else will. What follows is a scene of Shakespearean tragedy in which Tigh poisons his own wife. (When Ellen says that she'd do what she did again if it meant saving her husband, it reveals a mindset that's at odds with Tigh's soldier mentality — because the mission must be maintained at the individual's expense, not vice versa.) Can you agree with Tigh's mindset? Probably not, but you can probably sense a warrior's code at work. In Tigh's mind, this is a mercy killing carried out because he loves her and wants to be sure she dies on his terms and not someone else's. It's a character-defining moment.

Soon the bombs are falling, and we learn the nature of Galactica's rescue plan. Strictly speaking, this is not a rescue mission so much as an orchestrated diversion to keep the Cylons busy while the residents of New Caprica flee to their now-unlocked ships and save themselves. Adama's plan involves a series of clever tactical maneuvers that make for some entertaining, frenetic action and impressive visual FX sequences.

I don't know, however, if I'm quite convinced by from a plausibility standpoint. The use of FTL jumps as a battle tactic strikes me as a dangerous tech card for the writers to play; it has an arbitrary nature and opens a can of worms. In one scene, the Galactica FTL-jumps to a point high in the sky above New Caprica City, does a free fall while on fire, launches its Vipers, and then jumps away just in time to avoid crashing into the ground at terminal velocity. It's a noisy and cool scene, but isn't FTL being used here like a magical teleportation device rather than a function to explain interstellar travel? Don't get me wrong: The notion of FTL is pure fiction in any case, but when they draw attention to it like this, it seems like it's the writers' fictional tech that's outsmarting the Cylons rather than the plausible ingenuity of the characters.

As was said by Lee in the last two episodes and the beginning of this one, Adama's mission is a hopeless one, and a point comes where the Galactica is under heavy fire, outnumbered by four basestars with the FTL engines down, and the situation looks hopeless. Obviously it's time for the Pegasus to charge in for the rescue, in what's one of this series' most spectacular battle sequences. In keeping with the epic scope of the episode, the Pegasus is sacrificed in this battle — a tactical maneuver on Lee's part. (Wouldn't it have been a TV coup if the Galactica had been destroyed instead and next week the show was called Battlestar Pegasus? Kidding.)

It makes for epic drama, but it leaves out some of the more realistic aspects of this series. I found myself wondering: Can a skeleton crew really pilot a battlestar through such a crucible of fire? Also, given the levels of trickery on display here, couldn't a way have been devised from the outset that used both battlestars to carry out the mission, with the sacrifice of one ship drawn up as an acceptable outcome? Perhaps it would've been too big of a risk, but it seems like it would've caused more confusion for the Cylons and made more sense than the Galactica going it alone.

I quibble on logic, but the truth of the matter is that these scenes are exciting and well executed. Much like "Pegasus," this is an episode that's less grounded in reality, and a little larger than life.

There's plenty of action on the ground as well, nicely shot in the Saving Private Ryan cinema verite style. (Duplicating the feel of documentary footage, it seems to me that SPR basically set the visual format for all realistic movie war footage ever since. One wonders if it has become easier to stage war action simply by adjusting the shutter speed on the camera.)

On the character front, we've still got Kara and Leoben in a twisted situation where she has become somewhat more submissive to life in captivity simply because her maternal instincts have kicked in to care for Kacey, allegedly her daughter. Leoben, meanwhile, seems to want some sort of admission of love from Kara, no matter how staged. Kara ends up in one of the most skin-crawling kissing close-ups imaginable. For the life of me, I don't know what Leoben even thinks he gains by getting such a coerced and false "I love you" out of Kara. One suspects this is not about love and the Cylon procreation plan (cf. Helo and Sharon); this is more about power in the rape-predator sense. When Kara stabs Leoben in mid-kiss and then twists the knife, we feel simultaneously glad and unclean.

Meanwhile, Baltar is the ultimate Cylon stooge. As the Cylons plan their evacuation, he sits powerlessly until D'Anna invites him to join the Cylons as they leave (since the humans will surely want his head). There's a showdown between Baltar and Gaeta that manages to keep both characters alive and supply Baltar an avenue for dignity: He will stop D'Anna from setting off a nuke. I find myself wondering what goes through this guy's head. He's clearly been suicidal, yet he couldn't take a bullet to stop the executions in "Precipice." Now he's willing to kill D'Anna to save humanity. When that doesn't go as planned, he ends up joining the Cylons because he simply has nowhere else to go.

As with the good dramatic victories, this one does not come without a substantial cost. Specifically, Maya is killed during the exodus, hybrid baby Hera survives, and D'Anna finds her, in keeping with her premonition. Despite every dire warning being issued by Roslin and Tory, Maya and the child could not be secured, and now the baby finds its way into the hands of the Cylons. Just wait until Sharon finds out. I love how victories on this show include ominous failures that hint at future disaster.

There are character costs as well. The episode's celebratory shots aboard Galactica have substantial power, but not for the reasons you would've thought. Adama is raised up on the crew's shoulders and cheered, but the scene is really about Tigh and Kara, who have been left very damaged by what has happened. The music (a solemn counterpoint to the celebration) and the focus on these two characters says more than dialog ever could, or would need to. Consider: Tigh lost his wife in an even worse way than a random Cylon killing, and Kara learns that Kacey is not her daughter, but simply a random child that was kidnapped and inserted into a very elaborate and cruel deception. In its subtle way, you can almost see Kara's spirit break in this scene.

It's realizations like these that elevate "Exodus, Part 2" into something more than the action-packed conclusion of a plot. The residents of New Caprica have made their escape, but what happened while they were there will leave more than its share of scars.

29 comments on this review

From from a viseral, action point of view this is my favourite episode of
the series.

From the tense decoy scene to the insane in-atmosphere jump to launch the
vipers and finally the four basestars on one battlestar pounding. I
seriously thought this would be the end of the Galactica, and the show
would move on to Pegasus; quite ridiculous and unprecidented really, but
for a moment I genuinely believed it. The pull away shot of Galactica
seemingly going down followed by Pegasus charging in to save the day is the
most satisfying action shot of the whole series run. Completely took my
breath away.

This ep is a total ripper. I knew something about it before it went to air
here in Australia and had to stop myself from finding out too much.
Could watch the action scenes both space and ground over and over again.

I think enough can't be said to praise the scene on the hanger deck. When
you think about what has just taken place, the whole occupation on New
Caprica, the elated cheers of most of the refugees, delivered from that
horror, juxtaposed against the despair of Starbuck and Tigh for what they
have gone through and lost, it just has such power to it. It's all the
emotion of New Caprica concentrated in a single moment. Very moving.

Is it just me or did the Pegasus since its introduction into the season go
completely under used? Besides the excellent Pegasus trilogy, we learnt
very little about the people serving aboard her, we had no significant new
cast members come from the Pegasus, and the people we did see seemed
completely unlikable. While its destruction was visually exciting and quite
moving, I didn't feel that a significant shift in the BSG story would have
taken place because the ship never really came into the story that much.

That's kinda cutting yourself short, isn't it? While going Faster Than
Light is impossible based upon current knowledge, there are many ways
around that.

BSG's FTL Drives seem to bend space, i.e. create an artificial wormhole,
which is a real-world theory which so far is plausible when it comes to the
math, but unachievable due to our limited technology.

In fact, I remember reading somewhere that artificial wormholes are the
most probable way space travel will come about in the future, as other
concepts such as Star Trek's warp drive, which changes the laws of physics,
and other series Hyperspace or Subspace, which depend on an alternate
universe for which there is no proof of as of now, are mathematically
impossible now. Wormholes are proven through math, however.

------------

Also, if you remember, the series has used the FTL as a plot point before.
I.E. the Raptor's jumping into a very low Caprica orbit to avoid the
Basestar's detection grid.

just for the record trek's warp drive does not change the laws of physics
it just bends them and it is mathematically proven as theoretically
possible just see: Miguel Alcubierre 1994 (The warp drive: hyper-fast
travel
within general relativity)

Kobol's Last Gleaming is still my favorite episode of the series (both
parts together), but the BSG jumping into the atmosphere and then jumping
out DeLorian-style is my single favorite moment, with the ending to
Crossroads being number 2.

I still can't get over how utterly amazing this show was. It's like a
great book, you can just pick it up and read it every year and it won't get
old.

My favorite part of this episode was after Kara accepts Kacey as her
daughter you can see her spirit crush when she finds out Kacey's not her
daughter after all. I just love how heartbreaking it is. So sad. Glad your
brought attention to that. I would have been very disappointed had you not.
I find all your reviews give me exactly what I need from the episode.
THANKS!
K+L Forever

I almost cried during the scene where Tigh poisons Ellen. Neither is even
close to being my favorite character but I completely sympathized with both
of them in this scene.

As for the rest of the episode, it's hard not to draw comparisons with the
Occupation arc that opened DS9's sixth season. When the Pegasus predictably
arrived to save the Galactica, I was reminded of the Klingons in "Sacrifice
of Angels".

DS9's arc was six episodes long at a time when this kind of storytelling on
television was unheard of. BSG's arc lasted only four, at a time when it is
much more common. It seems this limit was imposed by the network, but it
still seems like a cop-out. Why take such a big risk and then set
everything back to normal by the first quarter of the season? It was still
a great episode, but a lot of it just feels a little too easy.

When the Cylons asked where is the Galactica and then the next scene showed
the gigantic and very powerful battle star coming out of FTL in the upper
atmosphere and dropping towards the planets surfaces on fire blew me away
and somehow it was a very emotional moment. It was like I was a prisoner
myself on that planet and I looked up and seen a US Fighter coming to my
rescue.

If this isn't a 4 star episode than nothing is. The reunion in the hanger
deck ranks among the most heart-wrenching scenes in the entire series.
Need I even mention the battle scenes and atmosphere drop? Also how badass
is the final shot of Adama returning to duty with the fleet reunited?

The show just keeps reaching new heights. There's not a single show out
there that ever provoked such intense feelings in me--despair one minute,
elation the next--, or where I was drawn into it to such an extent that I
both identified with the characters or even, in a way, became one of them.

This particular episode has awesome action sequences, masterfully done, as
well as deeply moving scenes. Yes, many events happened too quickly and
easily, but that does not detract from the enjoyability of it.

Re: joke about destroying the Galactica and renaming the show Battlestar
Pegasus. WHAM! All joking aside, that would have been one of the boldest
moves in the history of television, one that would have elevated this
episode to 4 stars in my book.

Surpised I never commented on this one. Just watched it on my second run
through, and I must admit, this seemed far more powerful the second time.
The Galactica appearing in the atmosphere to the relief of everyone below,
the death of Ellen, the stunning space battle, and OMG that tragic final
scene in the hanger deck. I cried as soon as Tigh walked out of the
shuttle door. Funny, that i did NOT cry the first time (much anyways), but
knowing what happens to everybody it is so much more relevant.

I personally think this is where Michael Hogan dramatically takes over this
series.

This story arc has been excellent. Great action, great drama, and Tigh's
inner badass finally comes roaring through like I always hoped it would.

At the end of season 2 I had mixed feelings; sad that the "life aboard a
fleet of spaceships" theme was ending, but excited about the possibilities
of the new "occupation/resistance" setting.

Now, at the end of this episode, I find myself really bummed at the idea of
everything "going back to normal." All I can say is that Tigh better not go
back being the whipping boy or I'll be very disappointed.

This episode definitely has its flaws, but I have no nits to pick. It was
probably the most exciting episode of the entire run so far. And the gut
wrenching scene in the end was so well done and supremely acted by Katee
Sackoff. There are many empathy-invoking scenes in this series for many
different characters, but I don't think I've ever felt sorrier for anyone
than I did for Kara when Kacey was basically ripped away from her. It was
an emotional punch in the gut and it was conveyed with no dialogue.
Heartbreaking stuff.

I think when you combine both parts of Exodus as one episode, it is just
shy of 4 stars. 3.9 stars, I'd say...

Wow... I was sad to see the New Caprica arc end, in my opinion it's been
the highlight of the series (so far, I'm watching it for the first time
quite late in the game), but what an episode. 4 stars for me. The hangar
deck scene alone does it. The Tigh and Starbuck arcs were masterfully done,
and masterfully acted.

I got the sense that Ellen overheard Tigh and Anders convo, and also
understood Tigh so well, that she knew the glass was poisoned, and decided
to take her own life in Tighs arms when she said "I need a drink". I got
the sense that she understood, she knew it was her time, she told Tigh the
truth about what she did for closure then took her own life so Tigh didn't
have to, sticking with him and believing in him until the end.

@Cureboy:
"Ok this one had me tearing up at the end. [...] Good for him. Why'd he
let Lucy Lawless take the baby? When will Apollo lose that spare tire?
Talking to myself I know. But have to talk about the show with somebody
:)"

I'm right there with you, Cureboy! :)
I originally watched the first Galactica and TNG when they aired, but never
really got to watch much of the later Trek series. I later watched every
single episode of Star Trek on dvd with my now ex-girlfriend and her son;
they both loved it so much that they also bought every series on dvd after
we split up :) But ufortunately mother and child lost interest in BSG after
the initial episodes; it just wasn't their thing. I kept on watching (how
could I not, after "33"?), but just didn't have anyone to talk to about it.
So frustrating...

So don't worry, we're right there with you - try googling "Shankly Gates"
;)

The battle scene is probably my second favorite one in the series (first
prize still goes to the tylium asteroid battle in "Hand of God"), but I was
very disappointed by the sacrifice of Pegasus from a tactical standpoint
although the execution of Pegasus' sacrifice was pitch-perfect (*). That
ship took out a basestar in her opening salvo, and contained all the flight
simulators and Viper production facilities - what a waste! Lee Adama, you
are a frakking moron!

I know that behind the scenes it was getting too expensive to maintain the
Pegasus sets, but it was still disappointing. One other online reviewer
(Kethinov, I think) said that he would have scrapped the Colonial One sets
instead, by having Colonial One and a few other ships do the ramming
instead while Pegasus repaired its FTL and jumped out to fight another day.
Sigh, what could have been...

Despite that, still a 4 star ep for me.

(*) The way Lee Adama looks back at the Pegasus CIC in flames is very
similar to the scene in STDS9's "Changing Face of Evil" when Sisko looks
back at the burning bridge before heading to the escape pods. Given that
RDM worked on DS9, it's an interesting thing to note.

1) Galactica in a fiery atmospheric entry. My favorite bit is the quick
cut to CIC where we see things bouncing around and hear the turbulence --
you just know this isn't in the flight manual. (Yeah, maybe it's a cheat
-- we've come a *long* way since the miniseries where an FTL jump was a
huge deal.) But it's a great shot with great effects. One of my favorites
in the whole series.

2) The pull-back of Galactica getting pounded, followed by the Pegasus
salvos. Another series favorite.

3) Tigh and Ellen. And I also think Ellen knew what was in the glass.
Which leads to another emotional moment on the hanger deck when Adama
congratulates Tigh "You brought them back" and Tigh responds "Not
everyone."

I'm surprised they didn't spend more time on New Caprica.... but after
Precipice, they really had to get them off the planet before one side
exterminated the other....

The destruction of Pegasus was a bad move and did not seem necessary with
proper planning. Adama should have taken Pegasus into battle, a superior
Battlestar to Galactica, in the first place. (Really he should have taken
both ships)

Realistically, Adama should have taken command of Pegasus after Caine was
killed.

In an alternate scenario, Galactica could have been sacrificed and Pegasus
then renamed Galactica.

I remember this arc being so spectacular when it first aired. But after
watching it was 2017 eyes, it was pretty bad stuff. God, where to start.
They skipped ahead 14 months which is longer than the timeline of the first
two seasons. They glossed over so many potential storylines and rushed
right to the evacuation. They completely botched the Cylon's motivation for
being there and how they went about occupying New Caprica right to the
point where they shouldnt of had any motivation at all. Caprica Six gets
shot in the head and then comes back two scenes later without even a
grimace. Sharon shoots D'Anna in both legs and then next episode shes
walking around fine with no explanation. Boomer is there, but they dont
even come close to touching on the fact that the people they are occupying
used to be her ship mates. Like, that should have been 6 episodes right
there considering they spend 20 on her in the first season. They rushed the
"D'Anna dreams about the baby and questions her faith" story, it came out
of nowhere and made no sense. Like who cares if the Cylons have the baby,
whats the motivation? The thing was a rushed mess which left me wanting
more while not wanting it at all.

I was just blown away by this episode. The space battle was amazing,
although I do have to agree with some of those above that, tactically
speaking, sacrificing Galactica made much more sense. Galactica was 50
years old, run down, part museum, and as we see later in the series, this
battle did a lot of irreparable damage to the structure. Pegasus on the
other hand was virtually brand new, had the Viper training and production
facilities, plus it can land them upside down and would have lasted a hell
of a lot longer in protecting the fleet. And the show wouldnt have to be
renamed had Galactica been lost; Adama could have used his power as the
highest ranking Colonial Fleet officer in the entire universe to have
Pegasus renamed. There could have even been an episode about the wounded
pride of the Pegasus crew taking another blow after the loss of Cain, Fisk,
Garner and Shaw.

The scene at the end in the hanger always chokes me up when Tigh says "Not
everyone" and his haggered face says so much more than those two words. And
to add insult to injury, after Tigh has had to do unspeakable things to
save so many, and lost so much, it's Adama that is carried away by the
people and hailed as a hero.

Nitpicking - in the Miniseries, 33 and I think a few other episodes, it
took, or was implied to take, quite awhile to calculate a jump, spool up
the FTL drive and make a jump, but here it seems Galactica can now do it in
seconds?

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